


Danse Macabre

by Shadowmatic



Series: Pride Month 2020 [5]
Category: Hunger Pangs - Joy Demorra
Genre: Dancing, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24564205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmatic/pseuds/Shadowmatic
Summary: Leaving your vampire to mope is never a good idea.
Relationships: Nathan/Vlad/Ursula
Series: Pride Month 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1771609
Comments: 17
Kudos: 197





	Danse Macabre

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Demorra (thebibliosphere)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebibliosphere/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I know very little about dancing, and what little I do know is about the music, not the dances themselves.

Vlad stood at the edge of the ballroom. He gazed out across the empty expanse, the wall scones and chandeliers lighting up the floor and the dust motes swirling in the air. 

“Hey.” Vlad hid a jump in turning towards his boyfriend. Nathan smiled in a way that implied that he wasn’t fooled. “What are you doing down here all by yourself?”

“Thinking.” Vlad said, turning back to the room. 

“Do you want to tell me what you’re thinking about?” Vlad considered that, and then shook his head. “Alright. Do you want to dance?” Nathan held out a hand, and Vlad took it. 

They fell into an easy waltz rhythm almost immediately. Dancing without music could have made it slightly harder, but dancing with Nathan made that irrelevant. Ballrooms were really for more than two people, and while Vlad didn’t think that they were dancing with any ghosts, they were certainly dancing with memory. There had been so many dances held in this very ballroom, but now it was just them. 

They crossed a portion of the ballroom before Vlad switched the dance. He had been teaching Nathan how to tango, and now was as good a time as any to see how much he remembered. 

They switched with a minimal amount of fumbling, Nathan still leading. Vlad could tell that he was leading them into a dip, and Vlad let him. 

“Can I kiss you?” Nathan asked, holding Vlad in the dip for a moment. 

“Not right now.” Vlad said, and Nathan smiled, a silly lopsided smile that made Vlad think of a dog with its tongue lolling out of its mouth, utterly contented.

“You boys are ridiculous.” Ursula called, and Nathan stood, pulling Vlad against his chest. They turned to her. 

She was stood next to a phonograph, set on a chair. Vlad had forgotten that there was one in the ballroom at all. 

“You need some music to dance.” She said, letting the stylus connect with the wax cylinder and sweeping across the floor towards them. “Dance with me Vlad.”

“Of course.” Vlad held out his hand, and she took it. She had chosen a Ballo, and so Ballo they did. 

They danced through several songs, Nathan wandering around at the edge of the room before Ursula let go of Vlad’s hand and spun off towards him. 

“This floor looks like it would be super slippery.” Nathan said, scuffing a foot absently against the floor. 

“It is.” Vlad said. “When. When Riya was young, sometimes we would pretend to skate in our stockings. We tore a fair few pairs, but that was more because of running through the castle afterwards.” Helping to raise Riya had been a very demanding task, but she had been a lovely child, and she had grown into a lovely woman. 

“I’m going to try.” Nathan had already kicked off his boots, which hadn’t been laced up when he had arrived. Ursula and Vlad watched in amusement as he slid off.

“Do you want to know what’s even better?” Vlad asked, removing his own shoes. Nathan cocked his head at him. “You’ve got to get a running start.”

They spent the next hour running up and down the length of the ballroom, sending even more dust motes swirling up into the air, accompanied by the collection of cylinders that had been stored with this particular phonograph. Occasionally one of them would go over and change the cylinder, especially if the music got to slow, and the room rang with laughter. 

Eventually they collapsed together in a pile, still laughing. Vlad’s sides hadn’t ached with the kind of pure laughter that came from being utterly ridiculous with people you cared about in a long time, and even after they quieted, he couldn’t keep the smile off of his face.

“Well,” Nathan took Vlad’s hand carefully, giving him time to pull away if he wanted, “you aren’t moping anymore, so that’s good.”

“I wasn’t moping.” Vlad protested, gripping Nathan’s hand tightly. 

“You were.” Ursula said, propping herself up on an elbow so that she could look over Nathan at Vlad. “If you were to check the dictionary for the definition of the word moping, the only thing there would be a picture of you.”

“Dictionaries don’t have pictures.”

“You’ve just never looked for them.” Ursula said, smiling at him. “Under mutt, there’s just a picture of Nathan.”

“Ursula.” Nathan whined. He pouted, and the expression was so over exaggerated, Vlad couldn’t help but laugh. Nathan tried to say something more, but he couldn’t get it out because he was laughing so hard. 

Vlad rolled over, still holding Nathan’s hand, and looked up at the ceiling. Hells, he thought, I love them so much. 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: ballroom (day 5 from the Pride Month 2020 prompt list by @cutequeerpositivity on Tumblr)
> 
> I wrote this in about an hour, and I only did minimal research, please forgive me my mistakes.
> 
> Edit: aaaaaaaah. I done goofed. My Tumblr is @tesdradgon, I got the prompt from @cutequeerpositivitiy, but also aaaaaaaah, I didn’t really think anyone would see this. :)


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